“Our dream is to pin Sri Lanka’s name to the top world racing circuit list,” said Gayan Sandaruwan in the launch event of Sri Lanka Super Series 2017 held at DIMO, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

With this hope, the Navy gravel circuit also known as Navy Racing Track Colombo at Welisara was upgraded. It offers bikes to a lap of maximum 2.1km including 12 jumps, and cars a 1.2km lap. Gayan himself being the co-designer of the track along with veteran Hans Ralf described the track as beautiful with similar jumps to FoxHill, Diyatalawa. The car circuit has more drifting corners, allowing racers to gain an exhilarating experience while the 2.1km bike circuit would be the longest circuit Sri Lanka has seen. “We want to give the riders and drivers all levels of experience,” said Gayan.

When asked about the facilities it was said that a new sprinkler system is installed around the track, which would avoid the manual watering bowsers. Gayan went on to say that in normal gravel tracks found in Sri Lanka manual watering consumes time, delay races and make the place dusty, but with the new track sprinkler system, it would make life easy allowing everyone to forget dust and focus on the sport. He also went on to say the competitors would get all the facilities needed as well as for the spectators.

It was also said that the Navy Racing Track at Welisara is planning on opening an academy of racing for bikes and cars as a plan to uplift the sport of racing. This is its first kind of a professional racing academy in Sri Lanka.

When asked Gayan when the academy would be in operation he said, that as the first step the Navy Racing Track would be open for Motorbike races and then for the cars after FoxHill 2017.

The major barrier for Sri Lanka Navy riders was the non-availability of a motor cross race track for their training. Fulfilling the requirement, the Navy took the initiative to construct a motor cross track for bike and car races at the Naval Complex in Welisara which was opened on 23rs July 2014.

Gayan Sandaruwan backed by Team Honda Racing, which was formed in 2012, has been the undisputed Motocross champion in Sri Lanka. He commenced his racing career at the tender age of 17. In 2003 he won theSLARDAR best rider award and has since clinched the title 8 times, thus having the distinction of being the undisputed national champion. Amongst the numerous accolades Gayan has won, the Best Rider award at Foxhill Supercross is noteworthy.